Moving to the UK? Plan your tax before you arrive.

Once you are UK resident you are normally taxed on your worldwide income and gains. After ten or more tax years in a row abroad, the 4-year FIG regime takes your foreign income and gains out of UK tax for your first four years here. In any year you claim it, you lose the personal allowance and the capital gains annual exempt amount. Inheritance tax on worldwide assets follows after 10 years of UK residence.

Spending 183 days or more in the UK in a tax year makes you resident automatically. If you were not UK resident in any of the previous 3 tax years, fewer than 46 days makes you automatically non-resident. In between, your UK ties decide it: 46 to 90 days needs all four ties, 91 to 120 days needs three, and over 120 days needs two. Having a home in the UK and no home overseas can also make you resident under a separate test.

Split year treatment divides your first year of UK residence into an overseas part and a UK part, so income from before you arrive is generally taxed as if you were non-resident. It only applies if you meet one of the arrival cases, such as starting full-time work in the UK or starting to have your only home here. Each case has strict conditions.

It starts with the first tax year you are UK resident. If that year is a split year, it still counts as year one. So arriving in, say, February uses up a full year of the regime for only a few weeks of UK residence. Where you have flexibility over your arrival date, it is worth checking how the timing affects the four years before you book.

No. Foreign employment income is not qualifying foreign income for the FIG regime. Instead, Overseas Workday Relief can exempt earnings for duties performed outside the UK in your first 4 years of residence, if you meet the same 10-year non-residence condition. The relief is capped at the lower of 30% of the qualifying employment income or £300,000 a year, and you elect for it on your Self Assessment return.

Not under the rules from 6 April 2025. HMRC's guidance says the relief is available whether your earnings are paid into a UK or an overseas bank account. The old offshore rule still matters for income from before 6 April 2025 that was taxed on the remittance basis: that income needs to stay in a qualifying overseas bank account to keep the relief.

Once you are UK resident, foreign pension income is normally taxable here. If you qualify for the FIG regime, most foreign pension income can be claimed for relief during your first 4 years, although certain types of pension income are excluded. After that, or if you do not qualify, the double taxation agreement with the paying country decides where it is taxed, and foreign tax can usually be credited against UK tax.

Not usually. Where income is taxed both abroad and in the UK, you can normally claim foreign tax credit relief on your UK return, up to the UK tax on that income. The double taxation agreement with the other country may give the taxing right to one country only, or set a reduced withholding rate. We check the relevant treaty for each type of income.

No. The facility is for people previously taxed on the remittance basis who want to bring pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains to the UK. It runs from 2025/26 to 2027/28, at 12% for the first two years and 15% in the last. A first-time arrival has no remittance basis history to designate.

Usually, yes, if you have foreign income or gains, untaxed UK income, or you want to claim the FIG regime, Overseas Workday Relief or split year treatment, as these are claimed on the return. If you need to file for the first time, register with HMRC no later than 5 October following the tax year concerned. Late registration can lead to a penalty.

On your Self Assessment return, no later than 12 months after the normal filing date. For 2025/26 that means by 31 January 2028. You choose which foreign income and gains to claim for in each year. Claimed income still counts in your adjusted net income for the High Income Child Benefit Charge and childcare support, and you lose the personal allowance and the capital gains annual exempt amount for that year.

Once you are a long-term UK resident, which means UK resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years. Until then, your overseas assets are generally outside UK inheritance tax, although assets abroad held in a trust follow their own rules. If you later leave, long-term residence can continue for between 3 and 10 tax years, depending on how long you lived here.